When millions of people watched the Star Trek: Into Darkness advertisement during a Super Bowl commercial break, they also saw something different about the URL. Rather than link to their own website, the makers of the commercial chose to link to a new URL:

According to the iOS Developer Library, developers can adjust the link (either company name or app name, or app by company) to feature the company’s name:

http://appstore.com/company/appname

Or if the developer or company wanted to highlight their entire repertoire of apps, they can use this URL:

http://appstore.com/company

Essentially, the appstore.com domain triggers iTunes to open up, and go to the specified app’s page. (This method works for both desktop and iOS mobile devices.) While you can share the link anywhere that people may look, it can be more powerful if it’s accessed directly through a mobile device (e.g., a mobile website or through mobile advertisements). This is because the URL automatically opens up the App Store on the iOS device, which takes the user to the download page in one click.

In June 2013, Apple announced they had 900,000 apps in the App Store. The URLs that previously led to iTunes apps were convoluted (e.g., it would look something like this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-trek-app/id588255788?mt=8); however, vanity URLs are a matter of 20-30 characters (appstore.com/startrek). Vanity URLs are a method of cutting through the noise and making it possible for developers to promote apps and users to discover them more easily. More and more, it’s no longer enough to rely on iTunes as a distributor; rather, it’s now the developer’s responsibility to promote their mobile solution themselves.

Best Practices

Most people choose the default domain of http://appstore.com/appname, simply because most people go to it and it’s the shortest to remember. There’s no downside to this option.

Watch out

Competitors can attempt to come up with a name that’s similar or a misspelling, which leads users who mistyped to a completely different page (much like domain names). Similarly, if you want to maximize the opportunity to share your vanity URL on a billboard or a television screen, keep it as short as possible — typing on a mobile device could hinder its effectiveness.

Fortunately, even if there’s a typo (and a competitor didn’t use that name), the vanity URL will lead to a search query of that word, and bring up apps with similar titles.

Similarly, much like what we saw with domain names, there could be a secondary market that manifests simply because developers may want to take the stab at taking the best vanity URLs. Eventually, the Android platform will do something similar for Google Play, and these events will unfold in that ecosystem as well.

Closing Thoughts

There’s no downside to getting a vanity URL. It’s a shorter, simpler, and more memorable way to bring consumers to your page on the App Store, especially if they access it using a mobile device. Capitalize on yours and start spreading it so that you can get more downloads today.

With the growing reliance of companies on mobile devices and apps, enterprise app stores – stores accessible only to employees of an organization – are on the rise. Similar to how companies make use of both public websites and private intranets, we’re going to start seeing companies have public apps for their customers, as well as a private collection of apps just for their employees.

In a way, BlackBerry Enterprise Server was a variant of the original private app store. This technology connected mobile devices with desktop software (e.g., calendars, messaging clients) and allowed employers to control what software was available on enterprise devices. While that was a standard in its time, enterprise app stores have taken on a new form and function.

Bloomberg provides an excellent example of a private enterprise app store. Their Enterprise App Portal makes previously scarce information accessible by any subscriber to the app. According to paidContent, it will cost around $20,000 annually to get access to this information.

In speaking with clients, I have discovered that the demand for enterprise app stores extends across various sectors. For example, one of our clients in the home furnace market wanted to provide a means of distributing apps which would enable field technicians on service calls at customers’ homes to diagnose problems more easily.

Perhaps one of the most highlighted internal app stores is the General Electric internal mobile app store. As of mid-2012, according to one article, GE apps have been downloaded by employees over 350,000 times.

Another article by Gartner predicts that by 2017, 25% percent of enterprises will have an enterprise app store for managing corporate approved apps on desktop and mobile devices.

Here are some benefits to building an enterprise app store:

1. Privacy

There may be some scenarios where apps hold confidential information that needs to be kept within the organization. In this case, it would be best to keep these apps from the public. An enterprise app store offers privacy from public eyes and makes the information-rich apps available only to the people who need to know about it.

2. No Restrictions

Where Apple’s stringent restrictions keep many features from reaching the market, the enterprise app store provides an alternative where the sky is the limit. It also means developers can distribute new builds and updates much more quickly.

3. Consolidated Paid Apps

Instead of having employees expense paid apps every time they purchase one, companies can simply buy a license from a manufacturer and distribute the apps through the enterprise app store. This clears up a bunch of headaches in terms of organization. It also presents an opportunity to track usage and feedback much more clearly, to see if employees are satisfied with the apps or not.

4. Encourages and Capitalizes on BYOD

As the BYOD movement reaches the early majority, employees will no longer require separate devices for work and personal use. Instead, perhaps as BB10 is indicating, there can be different profiles for different uses (e.g., separate work and personal profiles). The internal app store, if it is cross platform, would enable flexibility in whichever device an employee decides to choose.

5. Convenience

Whenever a new build of an app is released, instead of having the user go into the App Store or Google Play to install the update, companies can just send out a push notification with a direct link that updates apps with one push of a button.

6. Security

Where there are a ton of apps with viruses and spyware in Google Play, an internal app store would be free of any harmful programs. Every app would be carefully curated, and even if a compromised app did get through, the power of the crowd of employees means the app store would be able to get updated much more quickly.

Along with BlackBerry, other major smartphone manufacturers are also taking notice of the proliferation of mobile devices in enterprise and are proactively working to service this demand. For example, Samsung is now building Android devices for enterprise via the Samsung For Enterprise Galaxy at Work solution.

Conclusion

Enterprise app stores are going to pop up with an increasing frequency; if your company relies on the spread of information or communication, consider setting up an app store or web portal to house your company’s apps.